(Extract of an interview with Brendan deCaires, Georgetown, Guyana, August 16, 2013. Brendan deCaires is a Literary Critic and Reviewer working in Canada. He has worked in Trinidad & Tobago; was an editor and book reviewer for the ‘Caribbean Review of Books’ (CRB) and ‘Caribbean Beat’; has published literary articles and reviews; and is co-founder of Moray House Trust in Georgetown. 

Native to Guyana, DeCaires has also lived in Britain, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Mexico, and New York. He has worked as an editor, human rights activist, and an English Literature and ESL teacher. He is currently programmes and communications coordinator for PEN Canada. This is the second time he has sat on the judges’ panel for The Guyana Prize for Literature.)
PP: How should we [in Guyana] go about opening ourselves up to the hidden voices in our society?

BdC: That’s a hard question to answer. But here is something: The Guyana I grew up in [in the early 70s] had the last remnants of a reading public. People were still well educated, and there were a number of bookstores. There was still a sense that words mattered. This is one of the few countries in the world where the national poet can be quoted by more than half of the population. I can only think of one other country where this is likely: Russia.
At a certain point in modern Russian history, nearly everyone could quote Anna Akhmatova. I would say that most people who grew up in the 60s could quote at least three lines of Martin Carter… because he was writing about their reality. Since then, I can’t think of any poet of comparable stature. I’m not saying there haven’t been any writers with similar qualities; just none of that stature …
Writers who speak to just one section of a society rarely produce anything of substance.

PP: As we are on the subject of contemporary writing: What are your thoughts about current Guyanese writers, local writers?

BdC: When you are trying to solve the problem of local writing, you can’t fix one thing; you have to revive an education system that will deliver a large number of literate people. You need to have bookstores, and publishers with sufficient standing; quality presses with a credible editorial process. You need people who can vet manuscripts and improve them as needed.
There is a tendency to feel that if you publish anything, you’ve arrived; it doesn’t quite work that way. Or, at least, it shouldn’t. Many countries that have poured a lot of resources into local talent, artistic and literary, regardless of the quality, have often found themselves saddled with a decade of unreadable material.

PP: You have just had a close look at Guyanese Literature: What do you think of it?

BdC: That’s a tricky question. I don’t want to say anything that is too summary. I have had two snapshots of what is out there, but I doubt that it is a good indication of what is really available.

PP: I understand that. Let’s go on to what is available.

BdC: The first time round, the quality was surprisingly low; and this year, with a few exceptions, it wasn’t much better. Oddly enough, the poetry submissions were strong in the first year, even though it’s much harder to write poetry well.
But the unevenness in both years comes back to the problems we’ve been talking about. Established writers have a natural advantage in these situations, because their books have been vetted, edited, published. Often, they are up against manuscripts which have not been inspected or worked over…

PP: Or reworked.

BdC: But more than that, I think you have this distancing effect when you read a novel published by a Guyanese writer who has being living abroad: It is de facto; a novel about the past, probably 30-40 years back. I was struck by the absence of contemporary Guyana in most of the fiction.

PP: There is no writing talking back to present-day Guyana?

BdC: I wouldn’t say there is no writing, but few of these submissions talk back to our current reality. There have to be writers who are dealing with the here and now…

PP: We see it daily in the letter columns of the newspapers.

BdC: There again, the task of addressing daily life and its problems has moved into journalism; it doesn’t belong in fiction anymore.

PP: So, the writers and artists have abandoned their role?

BdC: No! Not at all! I don’t think that is the case…

PP: Then, why it is not coming out in our writing?

BdC: That’s a structural problem. I’m sure there are writers right now composing the very book that I’d like to read. But where would they publish? And who would read it? These are the obstacles. I mean, nobody can live in a society with serious problems without wishing to respond to them. But why would you respond to it in a novel, when novels are not read in your society? It’s a chicken and egg thing.

PP: Am I flogging a dead horse with my projects — two columns and two TV programmes on Guyanese literature — trying to show how our writers deal with these issues?

BdC: No. What you’re doing sounds very honourable. I think that how you come to love literature is irrelevant; getting there is the thing… Good writers are people who have something worth saying about their reality. They put this down on paper as intelligently and as honestly as they can. That is the hallmark of any writer who becomes a classic.
Somehow, we don’t have that idea of writers any more; we have a nonsense notion of writers…

PP: So, they are not given the regard and respect they deserve. Earlier, you suggested we may have a structural problem with our literature…

BdC: Yes, but I think the problem of the structure is larger than you’re suggesting. In this case, the structure is the entire society.

PP: Expand.

BdC: You can’t fix one aspect of this situation; you just can’t drop a million dollars on the problem, and create a Publishing House in a vacuum. People need good bookstores, and a culture of reading. There have to be book clubs, and that means children have to be reading from an early age. That, in turn, means that writers have to visit those children and talk to them, so that they can start thinking that instead of aspiring to business school, they might eventually consider becoming writers.
I grew up in awe of Martin Carter, and I can think of nothing finer than to be a writer; precisely because he was my idea of what it would mean to be a writer.

PP: So all is not lost?

BdC: I’ve never felt that all is lost; what has been lost is the culture of reading. But cultures return; they don’t just disappear.

PP: As we see in fashion. I started this conversation by talking about reading, and it seems we have come full circle now, focusing on a reading culture. I hope this trend of a reading culture returns, and I hope, I know I feel you’re also thinking along this same line.

BdC: Intelligence never disappears from a culture altogether; it goes elsewhere. And all I am hoping is that it returns to books and words, and the pursuit of explanation of your own society in more conventional forms.

PP: And you could help in this respect.

BdC: I am part of the Diaspora; I am safely tucked away in Canada, but I will do whatever I can from afar.

PP: Your book reviews will be helpful; we cannot diminish the support of critical writing to creative work. We’d be happy for whatever help you can offer. (To respond to this author, either call him on (592) 226-0065 or send him an email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com)

WHAT’S HAPPENING:
• The Guyana Annual 2012-2013 magazine is now available at Guyenterprise Ltd, at Austin’s bookstore and from the editor at the above contacts. This issue of the magazine is dedicated to E. R. Braithwaite. The magazine also features articles on copyright, law of intellectual property, creative industries, oral traditions of Guyana, the future of West Indian cricket and the future of books.
• Look out for the launch of ‘An Introduction to Guyanese Literature’ by Petamber Persaud. This 150-page book is a rich collection of Guyanese pride and joy, containing more than 100 photographs.
Look out for information on the Mexican literature award, and the Walter Rodney creative writing prize.